Level 19 rogue twinking guide

So you want to make a level 19 rogue twink? Well, it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fun (until it's done that is), and it is most certainly not going to be cheap.

First things first; selecting your race. For Horde your choices are Orcs, Trolls, Forsaken, and Blood Elves. For the Alliance you have the choice of Gnomes, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. Choose carefully because you will be spending A LOT of time and money on this character. You may want to consider the racials or the starting stats, or like me, just pick on looks alone. You can find all the racial skills and starting attributes on the race page of your choice.

As of patch 3.0.2 you can't get 12 dodge chance on cloak as it now requires a level 35 or higher item. (Billy Murlo here! I play on the Server Lethon, if that matters, but I thought I'd add this! I have Sentry Cloak on my Lv19 Rogue named 'Murlo'. It has a functioning +12 dodge rating enchant. I don't know why it works if it requires a higher level item, but it just does.)

In battlegrounds there are many useful, witty, and downright ingenious strategies and tactics for rogues. Because this is about a level 19 rogue, the battleground of focus will be Warsong Gulch. One nifty gear-related technique is to enchant a pair of boots with swiftness and pop those on when you have the flag, also pop a swiftness potion and time your 'Sprint' cooldown and you often fly past the opponent team.

Timing your saps is important in Warsong Gulch. I always sap, and then take a 360 degree gander at what is is around me. You can tell if it's safe to then launch an opener and decide an appropriate one.

One part of mastery of level 19 rogue twinking is understanding timing, distance, and the expiration of crowd control abilities. A good rogue twink can know that while there may be approaching opponents, he can still open and kill an opponent and then restealth in time. A lot of rogue twinking is watching other players in stealth and waiting for the right moment. If, for example, you're at the graveyard, obviously waiting until one of two players jumps off and then sapping the other will mean 1v1. Rogues have abilities to handle multiple opponents (with crowd control like Sap and Blind or disarming abilities like Dismantle) and it's good to be able to Tab between characters quickly. Awareness of when a sap or blind will be up makes you a more efficient rogue. For example, you could sap target B, open on target A, and then blind target C. If you're skilled and can dps quickly enough you could kill target A and stealth before the sap and blind on, respectively, target B and C expires...and then you can repeat that, dpsing B or C!

Rumsey black label is a Consumable-Drinkable buff that rogue twinks always get drunk off because of the stamina increase. That consumable can be found in Caverns of Time (using a high-level alt) or occasionally purchased off the Auction House.

I have 19-twinked with a hunter and rogue and wanted to share a few comparisons/contrasts insights. A hunter can dive into a situation and often improvise. A hunter can wingclip, back away, concuss, sick pet, and create distance between a target. Hunters usually improvise and attack when a target is within range of their abilities. A rogue, however, has calculated attacks. Usually a good rogue twink plans what target he will kill and executes necessary manuveurs (Distraction, Sap, Openers, and other abilities) to kill that target. Conclusively, twink hunters improvise and twink rogues have calculated attacks.

Don't underestimate how incredibly useful Distract is. If there is, for example, a cluster of 2-3 opponents, if you place a distract so that one of them turns around, the other 2 will often continue onward. Of course, the Distracted opponent will in a few seconds turn himself around and head in the original direction he was going...but there now is a large space between the opponent and the cluster. Usually, with proper timing you can exploit this extra space by delivering a sap and then waiting a bit until the original cluster continues even more (creating even more distance) and then open and kill the target. That's how a rogue can 'select' a target out of a small cluster, create distance, crowd control, and eliminate the target. Distract+Sap is a beautifully useful combination. The Distract+Sap combo can also be used for catching up to a flag bearer or even more usefully, disorientating an opponent's flag-bearer's cluster. The flag-bearer will keep going. If the flagbearer has say 4 protecting opponents, you could sap 1 and distract the other 3. This will create a large space between the trailing 3 opponents and the flag-bearer. You could then catch up to the flagbearer with sprint, but usually that may not be necessary because the rest of your team can then easily pick off one opponent flagbearer, which is no longer a flagbearer immersed in a closely packed cluster of 4 protector opponents!

So often, while rogues can accumulate many killing blows and capture flags with ease, at times, it's those very subtle things (like disorienting a flag-bearers protectors, enabling other teammates to than recapture the flag from that now-exposed flagbearer) that make the rogue class great. Unfortunately, those subtle things do help create team victories, but they aren't recognized by in-game achievements or even by other players, however, it's very rewarding to execute those subtle advantageous team-manuveurs...and of course, it's also incredibly rewarding to accumulate killing blows, honour kills, and flag captures!

In arena your approach should be different to Warsong Gulch. You should be changing your weapons depending on the opponents and using a slightly different Talent Build.

Garrote: Rogues should concentrate on maximizing the damage of their Garrote. In arena Garrote is far more useful than Ambush, which should only be used if you are certain the enemy will die from it. The best way to maximize your Garrote damage is to use an Agility Build from the equipment and enchants named above. Have your addon dual equip Cruel Barbs both with the +15 Agility enchant. This will maximize your attack power, and hence your Garrote damage.

General Strategy: The general strategy in arena is for the Rogue to gain the initial advantage (via Stealth) and then to maximize DPS to quickly defeat an opponent. The most difficulty part of this - is the Stealth aspect. As they will be aware that a Rogue is present. Mages will spam AoE, players will hide in places to prevent you getting a sap and the opponent will move in an anti-rogue formation. Because of this it is best to use a Subtlety Build built around Stealth and Garrote damage

Making a good twink is going to be expensive; and that's a fact. If you get the proper equips and enchants, it's gonna cost up to several thousand Gold. Saying that, it will be a great way to have fun when completed. G'luck

Popular Alliance choices are Night Elf, for the extra agility, and Human, for Every Man for Himself. Gnomes are also rather popular and dwarves make appearances here and there. Popular Horde choices include Blood Elf and Undead.
Every race has it's advantages and disadvantages, and your choice should be based largely on your play style.

Alliance

Human - The ability to detect stealth more adeptly than the other races is a bonus to survivability against other rogues. Every Man for Himself effectively allows you to have three trinkets, as it acts as an Insignia of the Alliance and shares the cooldown, too.

Dwarf - A survivability race, with more stamina and Stoneform, which will remove bleeds, poisons, and diseases and increase your armor slightly.

Night Elf - A very popular choice, Night Elves have the ability to Shadowmeld, which is similar to the Vanish ability. In addition, they have the most agility of any Alliance Race.

Gnome - The bonus to engineering for a gnome allows you to create higher-level Engineering items than the other races, however, you don't need to take up engineering in the first place. Escape Artist is a very nice racial ability that will remove all roots and snares (But NOT stuns!).

Worgen - Very good race for this, 1% more critical hit chance!!!!!
Horde

Orc - A high-stamina race with some nice racials. Blood Fury is nice for increasing your attack power and can give you the extra boost you need to take down other players. Hardiness will also reduce the duration of stun effects.

Forsaken - A very popular Horde race. Shadow Resistance will decrease the chance shadow spells hit you. Will of the Forsaken will remove charm, fear, and sleep effects on you, making for a potent combination versus Warlocks alongside Shadow Resistance. Cannibalize is a nice way to restore health without sitting down to eat, using a potion, putting stress on a healer, or running to a Rejuvenation powerup.

Troll - Many racials that benefit rogues. Berserking is a useful ability that will increase attack speed by amounts that vary depending on how badly injured the troll is. The highest possible bonus from Berserking is 30%. However, Berserking will cost you some Energy. Da Voodoo Shuffle is a new racial ability that decreases the duration of snares by 15%. Regeneration will increase your health regeneration rate by 10% and allow 10% of your health regeneration to take place during combat. While that may not seem useful at first it can save you in a pinch. Bow and Throwing Specialization will increase your ranged critical chance, be it with a bow or a throwing weapon.

Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent is the highlight here. Using it will silence every foe within an 8-yard radius and will also restore 15 energy. Magic Resistance will also decrease the chance that any spell will hit you by 2%.